Teaching the History of Zionism in an Arab context: Empirical and Ethical Imperatives

Egyptian and Arab attitudes toward Israel remain negative, and anti-Semitic myth-making would seem to preclude a nuanced historical engagement with Zionism and Israeli society. Yet a popular history course taught at the American University in Cairo (AUC) is titled “Zionism and Modern Judaism.” A poll of students who took the course suggests some prior skepticism toward portrayal of Jews in Arab media, and desire for a knowledge of Jewish history that transcends stereotypes. In this context, an ethical imperative is empirical: circumventing prejudices by confronting students with Jewish voices, by using primary sources in discussion and research. Comparison is made between the experience of teaching the course in Egypt and the U.S., highlighting an enormous disparity in ethnoconfessional backgrounds and assumptions made about the existential position of Jews/Israelis, but also a striking commonality in the engagement of students’ families with the curriculum.